NAZRY BAHRAWI
SENIOR LECTURER
Email: anmel_onuenjv@fhgq.rqh.ft
Research Interests:
Arts, Humanities
Arts, Humanities
Discipline: Comparative Literature
Pillar / Cluster: Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences
Biography
Dr. Nazry Bahrawi specialises in the comparative study of texts, theories and traditions of Indian Ocean cultures between the Malay Archipelago and the Middle East. His research is informed by discourses in world literature, decolonial theory, translation studies and ethnic studies. He has published in these areas in peer-reviewed journals and edited volumes.
He serves on the international advisory board of Critical Muslim (Hurst & Co.), a UK-based quarterly of ideas and issues which presents Muslim perspectives on the great debates of our times. Dr. Nazry has translated two literary works from Bahasa to English by Singapore’s Cultural Medallion winners: namely, Mohamed Latiff Mohamed’s collection of short stories, Lost Nostalgia (Ethos: 2017) and Nadiputra’s play, Lorong Buang Kok: The Musical (Cokelat: 2012).
Dr. Nazry has penned op-ed commentaries on culture, ethnicity and humanities education in the Malay Archipelago in Al Jazeera, The Guardian, South China Morning Post, The Straits Times and Today. His interviews were featured in BBC, Al Jazeera, Channel NewsAsia, TRT World, Suria, Deutsche Welle, South China Morning Post and The Straits Times.
Key Publications
Peer-Reviewed Articles
- “Rindu Rustic: Singapore Nostalgias in Modern Malay Prose”. Journal of Intercultural Studies. Ed. Adil Johan. Special Section: Malay Cosmopolitan Intimacies in Malay Performing Arts and Literature: An Introduction. Taylor and Francis Journals, Jul 2019
- “Mecca of Myths: Melaka in Two Hikayats”. Moving Worlds: A Journal of Transcultural Writings. Ed. Shirley Chew. Special Issue: Postcolonial City – Southeast Asia. University of Leeds and Nanyang Technological University of Singapore, Dec 2018
- “Mohsin Hamid’s War on Error: The Reluctant Fundamentalist as a Post-Truth Novel”. CounterText. Ed. Norbert Bugeja. Special Issue: Afterwor(l)ds. Edinburgh University Press, Aug 2018
- “A Thousand and One Rewrites: Translating Modernity in the Arabian Nights“. Journal of World Literature. Eds. David Damrosch and Susan Basnett. Special Issue: Translation Studies Meets World Literature. Brill, Sep 2016
- “Incest Performed: The Neocolonial Perversion of Translation in Malaysia”. Translation and Global Asia: Relocating Cultural Production Network. Eds. Uganda Sze-pui Kwan and Lawrence Wang-chi Wong. The Chinese University Press, Dec 2014
- “Hope of a Hopeless World: Eco-teleology in Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake and The Year of the Flood”. Green Letters: Studies in Ecocriticism. Ed. Geoff Berry. Special Issue: Utopias and the Environment. Taylor and Francis Journals, Dec 2013
- “Fictionalising the Utopian Impulse as Postsecular Islam: An East-West Odyssey”, Literature and Theology. Oxford Journals, Sep 2011
Edited Volume
- Assistant Editor. Reading the Abrahamic Faiths: Rethinking Religion and Literature. Eds. Emma Mason and Nazry Bahrawi. London: Bloomsbury, Dec 2014
Selected Book Chapters
- “Weretigers in Weretexts: Cultural Translation and Indigeneity in the Malay Archipelago”. Translational Politics: Contesting Race, Gender and Sexuality in Southeast Asian Literature. Ed.: Grace V.S. Chin. New York: Routledge, 2020 (Forthcoming)
- “Utopia”. The Encyclopedia of Postcolonial Studies. Eds.: Sangeeta Ray and Henry Schwarz. Wiley-Blackwell: Malden MA, Jan 2016
- “Multiculturalism”. The Encyclopedia of Postcolonial Studies. Eds.: Sangeeta Ray and Henry Schwarz. Wiley-Blackwell: Malden MA, Jan 2016
- “Not My Bible’s Keeper: Saramago’s Cain Translates Postsecular Dissent”, Reading the Abrahamic Faiths: Rethinking Religion and Literature. Eds.: Emma Mason and Nazry Bahrawi. London: Bloomsbury, Dec 2014
Selected Essays
- “The Myths of the Lettered Native”, SG Bicentennial, Ethos Books: Singapore, 2019
- “The Colonial Art of Telling Tales”, 200 Years of Singapore and the United Kingdom, Eds. Tommy Koh and Scott Wightman, ST Press: 2019
- “Meditations on Brown Humanity”, An Introduction to Collected Plays Three by Alfian Sa’at, Ethos Books: Singapore, 2019
- “First as Harimau, Then as Harimeow?”, State of Motion 2019: A Fear of Monsters exhibition catalogue, Asian Film Archive: Singapore, 2019
- (In Bahasa) “Dari Dai Nippon Teikoku ke Dai Nippon Kawaii”, Sakura Mekar di Bumi Berdarah: Koleksi Cerpen dan Sajak 75 Tahun Penjajahan Jepun di Singapura, Angkatan Sasterawan ’50: Singapura, 2018
- “A Tradition of Island Hoping”, The Birthday Book (2017): What Should We Never Forget?, The Birthday Collective: Singapore, 2017
- “Racialism in the Archipelago”, Critical Muslim (Issue 14): Power. Hurst Publishers: London, Apr 2015
- “The Devil’s Interpreter: Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd’s Humanistic Hermeneutics”, Critical Muslim (Issue 12): Dangerous Freethinkers. Hurst Publishers: London, Oct 2014
- “Textual Desires: Islam and Literature in Southeast Asia”, Critical Muslim (Issue 7): Muslim Archipelago. Hurst Publishers: London, Jul 2013
- “The Andalusi Secular: Enlightenment Ideas in Al-Andalus”, Critical Muslim (Issue 6): Reclaiming Andalusia. Hurst Publishers: London, Apr 2013
- “Hassan al-Banna, The Pragmatist”, Middle East Insights, Middle East Institute-NUS: Singapore, May 2012
- “Moderate Islam in Southeast Asia and Egypt”, East Asia Forum. Australia National University: Canberra, Australia, Oct 2011
Book Review
- Review of “George E. Dutton’s Voices of Southeast Asia: Essential Readings from Antiquity to the Present” in TRaNS: Trans-Regional and National Studies of Southeast Asia. Cambridge University Press, July 2016
EDUCATION
- PhD in Comparative Literature, University of Warwick (2013)
- MSc in General and Comparative Literature (distinction), University of Edinburgh (2009)
- BA (Hon.) in English Language and Literature, Singapore University of Social Sciences (2007)
RESEARCH INTERESTS
- Malay and Arabic literature and culture
- Decolonial theory
- Translation studies
- Ethnic studies
AWARDS
- Toji Cultural Residency in South Korea, 2019
- SUTD Award for Excellence in Service to Community, 2018
- National University of Singapore-Middle East Institute Research Fellowship (Postdoctoral), 2011-2016
- Muhammadiyah Ibnu Sina Award (for PhD studies), 2010-2011
- Islamic Religious Council of Singapore Postgraduate Scholarship (for PhD studies), 2009-2010
- British Chevening Scholarship (for Masters degree), 2008-2009